Rossi Rant: Four Years Later

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Sunday, September 11

Four Years Later

This morning the sky is clear, blue
The air is crisp, still cool but waiting for the next wave of morning to warm it as the sun grows brighter, still brighter moment-by-moment
Much like the morning four years ago when I awoke to face a new day feeling optimistic, feeling ready for whatever a September morning in New York City might bring

Then the world was inexplicably altered
In a matter of hours, in a matter of minutes, in a matter of seconds
Everything shattered

This morning those memories come shooting back, the slide projector in my head, playing image after image… the first tower falling, the sound of screams of miles away, the smoke, the smell, the fear, the panic..

But what comes next is what I most want to remember..
The kindness, the bravery, the love, the pride, the thousands and thousands of strangers who gave up their time, their money, their goodness to do anything they could do to help..

I remember the face of the broken policeman who stared at me glassy-eyed and dazed as I placed food on his plate and whispered, “thank you.”

Where is he today? Is he whole again?

I remember the young Indian man who stumbled into ground zero and slept on the benches of St. Paul’s Church for a month while he gave our clean socks and bottles of eyewash to the rescue crews.

I remember the great butch, teddy-bear Dom who looked around at the hungry, thirsty, tired rescue crews and found some folding tables, covered them up with all the donated food he could find and when the canteen he’d started became a publicity boom for the church, he was no where to be found. He didn’t care about taking credit. He only cared about helping.

Today the media coverage of the four year anniversary of “911” is mixed with media coverage of the after-math of Katrina. Interspersed in the images of the families of those lost on September 11th holding up photographs of their loved ones as the memorial ceremonies at “911” begin, are images of families who have lost everything in New Orleans and the surrounding areas, who are living in shelters, home-less, city-less, who may have lost their loved ones, their pets, who have lost all their possessions, in many cases everything but the clothes they are wearing.

And again there are those people..the ones who borrow vans on Long Island to drive to New Orleans and rescue cats and dogs, the ones who are sharing their homes with strangers, the ones who give money they don’t have, the ones who are wading through contaminated water to get to people trapped in their homes..

Kindness, bravery, love, decency, the ability to risk your own well being to save a stranger…on the morning of the four year anniversary of 911, we are seeing all this again..

And this…this….this…is the legacy of “911” that I hope prevails..

Not the hate, not the terror, not the horror, not war, but goodness, kindness, selfless-ness and compassion..

To honor all the lives lost on that terrible morning four years ago…help a life, support a life, save a life, nurture a life…give of yourself to a life….today..

08:55 AM Speak (4)